In the waning days of her 23-year career at St. Tammany Health System, Chief Operating Officer Sharon Toups inevitably began marking notable “lasts”: Last ribbon cutting. Last colleague incentive celebration. Last budget meeting.
But the “last” she logged on Monday, March 10 – just two weeks before her scheduled March 21 retirement date – hit her particularly hard.
It was the last new-hire orientation she attended, and seeing all those fresh faces embarking on their STHS journey made her misty.
“I think what I’m going to miss the most – and that’s why I got teary-eyed – is the people,” she said.
“Anybody who joins our team is really hand-chosen to fit the culture of St. Tammany,” she added. “My message to them all the time is, they should pat themselves on the back because they were chosen to be here. We have a lot of applicants for the jobs that we have open, and we really do try and find people who will fit into our Culture of Caring.”
In a way, it was a full-circle moment for Toups. When she joined the health system as COO in February 2002, she was enlisted by then-CEO Patti Elish to help St. Tammany become a workplace of choice by creating an environment that would draw the best job candidates.
Twenty-three years later, that effort is still paying dividends, with health system leadership consistently citing its workforce as its most valuable asset.
“I tell the board this all the time: It’s not about the building, it’s about the care that's going on in that building,” Toups said.
That philosophy, which has guided her over the past two decades, has been key to St. Tammany’s transformation into the thriving, regional health system it has become.
*****
As impactful as her career has been, not even Toups saw it coming upon earning her Bachelor’s of Science from LSU School of Medicine in 1983.
“I started my healthcare career at Ochsner in New Orleans. I graduated as a physical therapist and never dreamed in my wildest dreams that I'd end up in leadership or administration,” she said. “I remember when I started there, all the therapists were there five years, and I was like: ‘Five years? I'm not going to be anywhere for five years! I will have moved on.’”
Forty years later, she’s only worked for two employers in her healthcare career: Ochsner for 19 years and St. Tammany Health System for the last 23.
When she first arrived, STHS leaders were putting the finishing touches on their New Millennium expansion, a transformational capital project Toups helped see to the finish line. On her watch, the health system has only continued to expand capabilities and access.
She shepherded the award-winning Women’s Pavilion from the drawing board to reality – after having stood up a similar facility at Ochsner. She similarly helped make the Paul D. Cordes Outpatient Pavilion a reality. The list of initiatives in which she played a key role goes on: Mandeville Diagnostic Center. Covington Surgery Center. St. Tammany Health Foundation, along with its Healing Arts Initiative.
Most recently, there was this year’s opening of the $75 million St. Tammany Health System Surgery Center, a project in which she takes particular pride.
“It's going to serve the community for years to come,” she said. “And so that one’s on the top of my list.”
*****
As for what’s next, Toups hopes to travel. She’ll swing a golf club or two. Maybe play some tennis. Most importantly, she plans to spend more time visiting with and caring for her aging parents.
She’ll be around, though. She expects to remain involved with the health system in some capacity, and in the community as a whole.
When it comes to the health system, Toups says it is poised to continue its growth under incoming COO Jack Khashou, an 11-year St. Tammany veteran whose institutional knowledge she predicted will help him hit the ground running.
“When you have an organization like St. Tammany that’s just performing on all cylinders, it's hard to beat,” she said. “We’re large enough to where we’ve really become a regional health center, but we’ve really tried to keep that community, small-town feel.
“I don't think you’re going to find a facility or another health system that really can check all the boxes, that are really performing at their best. We do that every day, and it takes work. It’s not easy. It’s not on autopilot. We always want to get better. But we keep trudging away and doing that every day.”